Reviews

1989 US Gold (UK)
by Damian Scattergood and Mark Cushen

Doesn't this look like Kung Fu Master to you? Well, it does to me...

This game is a conversion from the IREM coin-op of the same name, which in turn is a late '80s version of their former classic, Kung-Fu Master - hence the strong similarities in gameplay. You control, not surprisingly, a vigilante whose task is to rescue Madonna (!) from the clutches of a skinhead gang (although your enemies appear to be much more varied than simple shaved-bald loonies).

Graphically it's colorful but sprites and backgrounds are merely adequate, and not very detailed. Sound is pretty sparse. However, Vigilante is a good conversion from the original, as much as it suffers from its same basic problem - it's a pretty shallow and repetitive game, which difficulty is based more on the quantity of your enemies than on the necessity of always adopting new tactics to negotiate the five levels it's made up with.

Proper conversion of a rather run-of-the-mill coin-op beat-em-up.

A crap arcade game gets a conversion that's a lot worse, giving me more reason to dislike this game.

Vigilante awards you with good graphics but movements are both limited and unresponsive ... this spoils the little fun Vigilante had been able provide had it had better movements .

Dull and repetitive scrolling beat'em up. I had the original and I remember finishing it by keeping pressed a couple of keys from start to finish. And this is how I saved Madonna.
Bought it because the italian Zzap! gave 89% to it (Spectrum version). Totally wrong.
2/5